Battle Hymn of the Republic

I’m sure we’ve all heard the hymn written by Julia Ward Howe before, so I’ll skip the introduction. I wanted to share the legit lyrics with you (because I’m sure you’ve heard them at a Georgia or Auburn game with some “slight” word changes). I love this type of old-age lyrical make-up that you see here along with a lot of hymns. Let me help connect some of the Biblical imagery with the song.

The first verse begins with an allusion to the coming of the Lord in glory, described in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26, and Luke 21:27).

At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. – Mark 13:26

Matthew even adds “and all the nations of the earth will mourn” meaning all wicked shall mourn at the prospect of their doom (Revelation 1:7). The cause of their wailing at the day of judgment will be chiefly that they have pierced, killed, rejected the Saviour, and that they deserve the condemnation that is coming upon them (John 19:37; Zechariah 12:12).

The second and third lines contain the images of treading out a winepress and a “terrible swift sword.” These two images appear in both the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Revelation. Isaiah 27:1 it talks about the Lord with His strong sword bringing judgment on Leviathan. Leviathan was well-known from ancient Canaanite mythology. Leviathan was a sea monster, representing chaos and evil. Isaiah used this image to proclaim that God will destroy not only historical forms of evil but strike against its cosmic source once and for all. In Isaiah 63:3 God responded to the watchman’s second question by describing His work of anger against the foes (identified as “the nations”). He described His killing work as trampling the enemy underfoot like a winemaker tramples grapes. Revelation 19:15 describes the Word of God as a “sharp sword” and to get a good understanding of the winepress of the fierce anger of God see Revelation 14:14-20.

The second verse contains an allusion to the writing on the wall opposite the lampstand in Daniel 5:5. The interpretation of that writing was the announcement of the destruction of the kingdom of Babylon (Daniel 5:17-28). And just to emphasize, in Daniel 5:5, there was the appearance of a man’s hand beginning to write on the wall for the king. What an interesting and incredible miracle.

The third verse refers to God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 that a descendant of Eve will someday crush the serpent, while the serpent can strike only at his heel. Indirectly, this also refers to Revelation 12:1-10, where a woman (often interpreted as being The Blessed Virgin Mary and/or the newly formed Christian Church and/or the ancient Israel) bears a child while engaged in struggle with a dragon/serpent. The dragon/serpent is defeated.

The fourth verse uses the imagery of the divine judgment. The first line alludes to the trumpet blast preceding the coming of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and the second line, to 2 Corinthians 5:10, which states that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” “Be jubilant, my feet!” may be an oblique reference to the Jubilee Year of Leviticus 25:10 in which all slaves were to be freed.

The fifth verse alludes to the glory of the transfiguration (Mark 9:2-3 and Matthew 17:1-2). It also refers to the doctrine that Christians can be made holy through the death of Christ (Colossians 1:21-22).

The sixth verse refers to the Earth as the footstool of God, a claim which appears in Isaiah 66:1, Matthew 5:35, and Acts 7:49.

God Performs the Union

The one-flesh union between a man and woman is the heart of what marriage is.

Genesis 2:24 is God’s word of institution for marriage. But just as it was God who took the woman from the flesh of man (Genesis 2:21), it is God who in each marriage ordains and performs a uniting called one flesh. Man does not create this. God does. And it is not in man’s power to destroy. This is implicit here in Genesis 2:24, but Jesus makes it explicit in Mark 10:8–9. He quotes Genesis 2:24, then adds a comment that explodes like thunder with the glory of marriage. “‘The two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

When a couple speaks their vows, it is not a man or a woman or a pastor or parent who is the main actor — the main doer. God is. God joins a husband and a wife into a one-flesh union. God does that. The world does not know this. Which is one of the reasons why marriage is treated so casually. And Christians often act like they don’t know it, which is one of the reasons marriage in the church is not seen as the wonder it is. Marriage is God’s doing because it is a one-flesh union that God himself performs.

(source)

This Isn’t Home

All of us know what it is like to be in a house that is not our own. Maybe you’ve slept in your share of hotels or someone else’s home. They have beds. They have tables. They may have food and they may be warm, but they are a far cry from being “your father’s house.” Your father’s house is where your father is.

We don’t always feel welcome here on earth. We wonder if there is a place for us here. People can make us feel unwanted. Tragedy leaves us feeling like intruders. Strangers. Interlopers in a land not ours. We don’t always feel welcome here. We shouldn’t. This isn’t our home. To feel unwelcome is no tragedy. Indeed it is healthy. We are not home here. This language we speak, it’s not ours. This body we wear, it isn’t us. And the world we live in, this isn’t home.

Max Lucado, A Gentle Thunder

I have chosen you out of the world, so you don’t belong to it. – John 15:19

One really cool thing that struck me about this little tid bit is this; “This body we wear, it isn’t us.” You see, what we have here isn’t our home, our forever place, but it is what God has given us to use as a tool for expanding His kingdom and bringing greater glory to His name each and every day. We all have amazing and wonderful gifts. It’s taken me many, many years to figure out what mine are, and we all have the responsibility to use these gifts for His glory and His recognition. God has given us such a short amount of time, use it wisely.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. -CS Lewis

Men, Man Up

There’s an ongoing war within our culture. Confusion over what manhood is has plagued our cities, families and lives. The concept of a biblical man has been lost in our generation. Unfortunately, many struggle with a tangible definition of a real man.

 

Lately I’ve been on a huge Lecrae/Trip Lee kick. Below are the lyrics to the music video above. (feat. Lecrae, KB, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Sho Baraka, PRo, Andy Mineo)

Mamma wants some Obama in me / The hood want PAC / Hip Hop wanna see the Common in me / And since it’s a senseless contradiction / I end up a misfit trying to fit in / This ends when I stand up and see the hands of the standard / Holy is the Lamb / Now we’re holding you to man up / ‘Cause we’re made in His image / Start looking at what you came from

Right after Adam every atom in our anatomies had to make adamant after what Adonai is against / Let me take you back to the tree in Eden / If you read it you’ll see that Eve was deceived but Adam is the one who let it in / Standing / Leading / No, we ain’t leading / Basically little boys with muscles and a mustache / The femininity / We need a remedy / The God-man / 100% masculinity

Where are the men at / Seems like they’re all lost / None of them are on the scene / Seems like they died off / They’re extinct / But my dream is to rise up / We’re chasing the prize of the King and Divine Boss / But we fell away / Now we’re ungodly / We lose and we really got the blues like Navi / I wanna celebrate the dudes that’s beside me / Fellas let’s elevate / We’re through with the lobby

Go ahead I say boy get your shine on / And if a sucker tries to block you get your 9 home / And what I heard you got to do to be a man now / Stand up for yourself / So I took it in my hands now / And that’s the problem / We’re busy trying to solve it / All the while we’re walking dead men / Somebody bring the coffin / Voice drop / Peach fuzz / You think that you’re a man because you’re feeling yourself / You need to man up

Sex and models / Tipping bottles back / A pile of excuses right next to your bottle caps / A rolodex filled with names that you aim to please / Next to the stack of money / Building up a heart of greed / Ice on his neck / Give the jokers a cold shoulder / You’re drunk off pride plus you’re loving the hangover / You gotta whole lot of stuff that won’t amount to gain / Life will never make sense because you never made change

You got it twisted / Sick like a fever / Little man live to stack dough / Keebler / Man up / Get up out of the treehouse / Leave the cookies alone / It’s time to eat meat now / Trying to show you a new way to live now / No charge / You can call it a freestyle / Without Christ you know how your man is / You’re a boy in a man’s body like Tom Hanks in Big

Being a man has nothing to do with age / You can be a boy till the day you lay in your grave / None of us behave like the image of who we’re made / ‘Cause we’ve fallen away / It’s better known as depraved / Running from responsibility / Really we crave the easy way out of places that call us to pull our weight / Men are going through it every day / Decisions are made / Responding to the call God’s giving them from the gate

Be alert against Satan.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. [1 Peter 5:8-9]

Be alert against Temptation.

Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. [Mark 14:38]

Be alert against Apathy & Indifference.

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. [Revelation 3:1-3]

Be alert against false teachers.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. [2 Peter 2:1]

Plain and simple, STAND UP for what you know your God has taught you to be blameless and true. Quit being pushovers and start being men of God delighting in the God you serve.

In Spirit & In Truth

Below are two videos created by a band named Kye Kye, Estonian born siblings Timothy, Olga, Alex, and brother-in-law Thomas. The first video is a very brief look into what it means to “worship in spirit and in truth”. The second video is a look into who God is.

 

God is a Spirit – This is one of the first, the greatest, the most sublime, and necessary truths in the compass of nature! There is a God, the cause of all things – the fountain of all perfection – without parts or dimensions, for he is Eternal – filling the heavens and the earth – pervading, governing, and upholding all things: for he is an infinite Spirit! This God can be pleased only with that which resembles himself: therefore he must hate sin and sinfulness; and can delight in those only who are made partakers of his own Divine nature. As all creatures were made by him, so all owe him obedience and reverence; but, to be acceptable to this infinite Spirit, the worship must be of a spiritual nature – must spring from the heart, through the influence of the Holy Ghost: and it must be in Truth, not only in sincerity, but performed according to that Divine revelation which he has given men of himself. A man worships God in spirit, when, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, he brings all his affections, appetites, and desires to the throne of God; and he worships him in truth, when every purpose and passion of his heart, and when every act of his religious worship, is guided and regulated by the word of God.